Greening Austin Daily

Doing Laundry and Being Green

31st March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments

Laundry is not very exciting, but it is a fantastic opportunity to green up your home. Lots of water and energy and chemicals are used in the process, so the more you green it up, the more you’ll diminish your carbon footprint, save yourself money, and extend the life of your clothes. Here are a few tips:

1. First, to decrease the amount of laundry you have in the first place, try to wear some things more than once. I know, I know, you’re thinking it’s kinda gross, but it really isn’t. Suits, sweaters that go over other shirts, jeans–I wear ‘em all at least twice before cleaning because they usually aren’t very dirty. Of course, if you were by a campfire or spilled something, go ahead and throw those clothes in the hamper.

2. If you are looking to get a new washer, consider buying Energy Star approved items. Energy Star machines can save you up to 7,000 gallons of water per year and up to $550 in operating costs over the machine’s lifetime.

3. Maximize your efficiency by making sure your washer and dryer are full before you do a load and by emptying the lint filter in your dryer after every use. This is will save on energy and water.

3. Use cold water. The vast majority of the energy used in cleaning clothes comes from heating the water, so by using cold, you will significantly decrease the amount of energy you use, and your clothes will generally get just as clean.

4. Check out eco-friendly laundry soaps. Regular detergents have crazy chemicals like phosphates, phthalates, and petroleum, which all have negative effects. Phthalates have been linked to cancer, petroleum can irritate the skin, and phosphates have a negative effect on the bodies of water they end up in by creating a bunch of algae and messing with the ecosystem. It’s way better to use soaps with natural ingredients. We posted awhile ago about some hand made soaps on Etsy. I bought the Bergamot Grapefruit soap, and it works really well and smells great. I’ve also used Seventh Generation’s brand and have been very happy with it. Or you could always make your own!

5. Experiment with natural items like lemons or oranges. There are a zillion household uses for them, including using lemons and baking soda as a bleach/stain-remover. Just like harsh laundry detergents, bleach is definitely not good for you or the environment, so it’s a good idea to look into using natural alternatives.

6. Try out line drying for some or all of your clothes. By doing so, you can save on your electric bill and prevent 700 pounds of carbon dioxide from being dumped into the atmosphere each year. You’ll also prevent a lot of wear and tear on your clothes from exposure to all that heat and tumbling in the dryer. Clotheslines are great because you can use the power of the sun to get things dry quickly, but if you live in an apartment like I do, you can use drying racks that save space. When I line dry, most of my clothes are dry by the next day. Here are a few tips for making sure your clothes aren’t so stiff after line drying.

7. When possible, avoid going to the dry cleaner’s. The chemicals used there are usually the kind that have been linked to all sorts of nasty things like cancer and reduced fertility. There are a few green dry cleaners out there, so look for those that use liquid carbon dioxide, “wet cleaning,” or silicone-solvent based cleaning. In Austin, EcoClean is a good environmentally friendly dry cleaner that uses the “wet cleaning” process. Also, most dry clean only items, including cashmere, can be hand washed gently and laid flat to dry at home and will be just fine. If you just can’t do without dry cleaning, be sure to recycle the plastic bags covering your clothes and return the hangers and safety pins to the cleaners if you start to accumulate too many.

Do you have any other green laundry suggestions?